Hearts are trump for ND

That's all Notre Dame's men's basketball team had going for it Saturday night.

It was barely enough.

Seton Hall did its best to give the game away. Air-balls here. Unforced turnovers there. Shooting 30 percent from the field.

For the longest time, the ninth-ranked Irish were reluctant to assert themselves.

Finally, it was Notre Dame's hustle and "heart plays" that allowed for a 60-48 escape from a Pirate ambush.

There was Tim Abromaitis' heads-up long rebound and subsequent buzzer-beating 3-pointer as the first half ended to cut Seton Hall's advantage to three, 27-24.

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"It was nice going in with a three-point deficit, rather than six or nine like it was a minute earlier," Abromaitis said. "It might have been a little bit lucky. It helped to us to forget a lot of the shots that we should have made in the first half. It was pretty good for us."

"I kept looking at the score sheet (at halftime) going, 'We're only down by three,'" said Notre Dame coach Mike Brey. "It felt like we should have been down by 15. We deserved to be down by 15, quite frankly. But, that's how crazy the game is."

"It's the luck of the

Al Lesar

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draw," Seton Hall guard Jordan Theodore said of Abromaitis' shot. "He had a big shot. Nobody was going to see that coming. I wouldn't say it really hurt, because we were still in the lead, but it gave them a little more momentum going into halftime. It was a tough shot and he knocked it down."

Boy, did he.

With 15:20 to play, it was Abromaitis again diving to the floor, coming up with a loose ball, flipping to Ty Nash who found Hansbrough for a layup, foul and free throw for a 34-30 lead.

"The play of the game is (Abromaitis) diving on the floor, getting the loose ball for a three-point play," said Brey.

A little later, Hansbrough came from behind to block Herb Pope's short jumper. The play infuriated Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, who was whistled for a technical. Abromaitis followed with two free throws.

It was like that all night. Nothing smooth. The offensive machine at Providence earlier in the week didn't make it home. This was no burn.

It was more a case of avoiding being burned. Don't get flustered, get better.

"It's an understanding, you can't get frustrated, just find a way to fix it," Hansbrough said. "We had a couple spurts. We went out by eight, then they came back by one. But, the thing that kept us on top were heart plays."

One vivid memory was Scott Martin walking downcourt, obviously muttering to himself. He had just missed his fifth shot of the night, having made just one. Confidence had left the building. Less than a minute later, his no-hesitation 3-pointer stretched Notre Dame's lead to eight with 3:11 to play.

With 1:08 left in the game, Seton Hall tried to roll an inbounds pass upcourt, hoping to preserve seconds before the clock started. Martin's hustle snared the ball, along with Theodore. Jump ball. Possession Irish. Heart play.

"It gives us a spark, when somebody makes a real big hustle play," said Hansbrough. "It gives everybody some extra fuel. We needed it, because we really didn't get it goin' from making shots, like we usually do."

Lost in the melee of frustration and determination, was an Abromaitis milestone. His free throw, his 22nd point of the night with 46.6 seconds to play to ice the game, was the 1,000th point of his career.

"He played fabulously tonight," Brey said of Abromaitis.

On top of his offensive production, he chased Seton Hall's leading scorer Jeremy Hazell around all night, holding him four points under his 18-point average.

"We did a good job of focusing and not giving up a lot on the defensive end," Abromaitis said. "Luckily we were able to make a couple shots in the second half."

"The second half, we kinda had a wake-up call," Hansbrough said. "We slapped ourselves in the face and said, 'Let's go, wake up.'"